PSN hacks have not deterred online gamers says expert

Gamers return to online play after recent PSN hacks caused a brief blip in online gaming

The PSN hacks that saw millions of PlayStation Network users lose their personal data earlier this year have not deterred gamers from online outlets, an industry expert has told T3.

Following the attacks on the Sony service earlier this year the head of the cloud-based gaming service OnLive has told T3 that despite an initial drop gamers have not been put off online offerings in the wake of the potentially devastating security breech.

“There’s been a drop off of PSN usage of course,” said OnLive founder and CEO Steve Perlman in an exclusive interview with T3. He added: “As far as we can tell from surveys, there’s been a steady growth since then, however.”

“I think people are more cautious, trying not to use the same passwords on the different sites and things like that. As far as online in particular we have seen rapid growth since our launch and there was no slow down or speed up.”

With the OnLive UK release date set for September 22nd, Perlman was keen to stress than users of the cloud-gaming outlet could not be hit by hacks in the same way as the PSN attacks. He said: “OnLive is structured differently, if someone did break into OnLive, the only thing they could steal is your high score.”

Did the PSN hacks put you off returning to Sony’s online gaming service? Let us know via the T3 Twitter and Facebook feeds.